I woke up in the morning and there was snow everywhere. I wanted to play in the snow but be could not because we had to get to school. Tucker my dog hops in the snow.

This morning when my mom took Tucker out he hopped around. The morning snow reminded me of the time I made a snow fort and it was huge!

That year we got a lot of snow. My neighbors came over for a snowball fight, and we won! It was a fun day! It took weeks to make our snow fort.

I love the snow!

A magical place

By Ethan Tortorella-Lewis

Grade 2, Barrington Elementary School

Once upon a time in the arctic, there was a place, not just any place, a magical place. It was Santa's home and the elves too.

It had big machines and it had a lot of presents. It was huge! All the elves were busy. Some were sewing clothes and some were making toys. Some were making puzzles and some were making books.

It was a happy family until Santa got sick! Christmas was only 3 days away. The elves tried every kind of medicine. It didn't work. The only thing to cure it was two cookies.

Finally an elf had an idea. All the elves went to the center of the village. The elf told the other elves his idea. We will make cookies! So all the elves got to work. Some made chocolate chip. That did not work. Some made ginger cookies. That did not work. Some made pumpkin cookies. That did not work. Finally the last elf made a sugar cookie. It worked!

Santa was not sick anymore! It was Christmas night! Santa got his sack of toys and off he went.

Snowball Fight

By Ian Kula

Grade 2, Barrington Elementary School

I have a snowball fight with my neighbors. They're both boys. It is Kulas vs. Pelletiers. We each made forts, we also made windows. We had to make a lot of snowballs so we could start the snowball fight.

Sometimes we sneaked out of the forts and hid. I covered myself with snow. They always stepped on me. We made snow hills. Once we got hit, we hit the ground. We can't hit them above the head. When we finished we'd go inside. My mom makes hot chocolate and wipes our faces off.

The Christmas Mouse

By Jishnu Pablo Dey

Grade 2, Horne Street School

There was a mouse who lived in a hole in a house with the Roxanne family. Last fall the Roxannes moved in all the way from Florida to this house in Massachusetts. They had three children; a thirteen year old daughter, and seven year old twins. And they had a cat called Chester. Chester liked his mice-diet he used to have. But luckily, he never found the hole in this house.

First the mouse was scared, and he didn't come out. Sometime when the kids left crumbs on the floor, the crumbs disappeared in the next morning. The mouse ate the crumbs off the floor, so the family never needed a vacuum cleaner!

When the mouse first saw the lights blinking on a tree in the house, he thought, 'Yikes, the house is turning into a forest!” There were lots of shiny boxes under the tree — long ones, thin ones, fat ones, small ones ...

Then he remembered, yesterday Mrs. Roxanne telling the kids, “You better be good, or Santa will not give any present!” The mouse was excited, and wanted to see what was inside the big golden box. But there was Chester! He was right beside the couch. The mouse went the other way. Chester went the other side of the couch, but the mouse was already back in his hole. The mouse's heart was beating a bongo drum solo. Then he remembered what Mrs. Roxanne said, and he got his little hole tidy.

That night, he saw lots of extra food, heard lots of extra noise and unfamiliar voices. After a long a time, he heard car engines — vroom ---vroom --- vroom --- .

Next morning, the sound of tearing wrappers, laughs, screams of 'oohs' and 'wows' woke him up. The cat got a pair of blue mice. The twins got two helicopters that were hovering around. The mouse drooped to the pile of crumbs, and sat down beside it.

So there was no present for him. And this mouse never gets a Christmas present.

Then he heard, “What is this?” The twins were fighting over a small gold thing. One said, “It's just a tiny piece of plastic!” The other said, “Let's throw it out!” Then one of them threw it behind the couch. It landed in front of the hole, and the mouse was startled. He took a glance; he saw a tiny box with gold swirls and designs, and one curly designed ribbon that was silver. He started gnawing on the string, then the wrapper. He opened the lid of the box: it was a book and a small light! The book said, “Mouse Tales.” He squeaked in joy! That night the mouse stayed up and learned to read.

The Happy Christmas Day

By Kaylin Penley

Grade 1, Hanson School

Once upon a time there was a reindeer named Rudolph and his friend the Grinch. They liked to play in the snow. They liked to eat candy apples and drink hot cocoa with marshmallows.

The Grinch did not want to steel Christmas. He wanted to help Santa deliver presents.

Santa tripped over a candy cane and sprained his ankle so, the Grinch and Rudolph had to take his place and deliver presents to kids all over the world. The Grinch and Rudolph had lots of fun!

A Bad Snow Day

By Molly Sawyer

Grade 2, Maple Street Magnet School

One day Katie woke up. She looked out the window. She saw that it snowed. She smiled a big toothy grin. Still in her pajamas, she ran down the hall to her sister's room. She was still sleeping so she yelled into her ear, “Wake up Sophie!”

Then she woke up. She looked like a zombie in a fight with a vampire. I could tell she was so mad, so I just told her about the snow and left. Then she went back to sleep and snored.

So Katie went down stairs to make herself some breakfast. Then she noticed her gramma sitting at the kitchen table.

Her gramma looked puzzled. She said, “What are you doing?” She didn't answer.

Five minutes later, she said 'I'm thinking about your grandpa.” She'd loved the way grandpa said the word marshmallows, but he was dead now.

So before anyone else came down to the kitchen, we got dressed and gramma took me out to the graveyard.

We got flowers from our house and put it next to the grave. Gramma took me back home through the woods.

Then everybody woke up. Sophie still looked mad. It was Thanksgiving. Then Mom and Dad and Sophie had breakfast. They all looked weird so I went back to my room. I wrote in my diary.

Could Gramma be dying? I thought. A tear rolled down my cheek. I went downstairs. Gramma took me into the living room. She paused for a moment. Then she said, “You know how much I love you! I'm going to show you before I die.” Then she opened her arms as wide as she could. Then she said, “And much more!”

When she did die, Katie went to the graveyard and picked flowers for her.